MIDNIGHT IN THE CEMETERY: A SPOOKY SEARCH-AND-FIND ALPHABET BOOK - Hardcover

Harness, Cheryl

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689808739 ISBN 13: 9780689808739

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1999

Synopsis

An alphabet book, featuring collage art, in which ghosts scare away two children searching for treasure in a graveyard

About this title

Review:

"Briars and brambles grow all around/ This oogly-boogly burial ground./ Where black bats swoop without a sound/ And a bandit's treasure might be found!"

Warning: This book is truly scary! It is also a spectacular work of art. Two children, "double-dog-dared" by older boys to dig for buried treasure in a graveyard, get far more than they bargained for when they disturb a pirate ghost. Dead Ed and his ghoulish cohorts explode from the earth, prepared to haunt the living daylights out of anyone with the audacity to bother them. The slyly funny rhyming text and page-by-page emphasis on letters of the alphabet are compelling enough all on their own, but the real draw of this unearthly anecdote is the stunning artwork. Robin Brickman cut, painted, sculpted, and glued together pieces of watercolor paper to create a remarkable illusion of dimension and perspective. Readers will want to spend hours exploring each page, searching for the foot, feather, frog, flame, and fungi on the F page, or the watch, whiskers, whistle, worms, and weevil on the W page. But mostly, they'll want this book around for late-night ghost-story sessions. Get ready to shiver and scream! (Ages 6 to 10) --Emilie Coulter

From Library Journal:

Grade 2-4-The illustrations steal the show in this spooky offering. Collages done with cut, painted, and sculpted watercolor paper cover the double-page spreads. The pages glow in ghostly whites and midnight blues, with the graveyard figures and tombstones appearing almost three-dimensional as they combine the satisfyingly macabre with the reassuringly humorous. The rhymed story tells of two children who steal into a cemetery to dig up the treasure of "evil old Ed," but are driven off by angry ghosts who go on to celebrate until dawn. The alphabet comes in the form of objects and animals beginning with each letter that can be found in the illustrations. A key at the back of the book lists the hidden objects. Additional clues are provided by the rhymes, in which an alphabetical series of alliterations indicates which initials to look for on each page, except for X, which only "marks the spot." "A gang of gray ghouls gasps and groans" and "Forlorn funeral flowers shiver lightly" may tangle the tongue, but are part of the fun. Readers will enjoy searching out the hidden pictures and the situation will provoke delicious shivers in those who never find enough of the "scary stuff."-Marian Drabkin, Richmond Public Library, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0689808739
• ISBN 13: 9780689808739
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Brickman Robin